Learning a new language takes time and effort, but there are ways to expedite and reinforce your learning.

Here, author Jennifer Still shares tips on several things she's done to help her retain new languages.

I've had a passion for learning languages ever since I was a child.

The first one I taught myself was French. I was 12 years old and in love with the melodic, beautiful sounds of the language, but it wasn't offered at my school, so I had to take matters in my own hands.

Now, more than two decades later, I can carry conversations in Paris's native tongue whenever I visit without much of a struggle.

In addition to spending years learning Spanish both in high school and on my feet at work, I've also dabbled in self-taught German, Italian, Korean, and even Russian. While I'm not fluent in all of these, I have found it easy to retain the vocabulary I have learned by doing these six things: